Page 25 of Rebel Fae
“Get out of my way, werewolf,” she said.
Vaughn squared his shoulders. “Sorry, the group has to stay together.”
“Says who?” she demanded. “I remember them saying there were no rules.”
“Says I.” Vaughn towered over the vampire, appearing menacing.
Regina growled and claws sprang from her fingertips. We all jumped to our feet, including Bael, who stuffed his last Pop-tart into his mouth and gave a tired sigh.
“Why can’t we just get along?” he mumbled around the food to no one in particular, then marched in Regina’s direction until Vaughn gave him a warning glance that seemed to say “let me handle this.”
“Maybe, just maybe,” Vaughn said, “on one of your good days you could put up a decent fight against me, but in the shape you’re in, you stand no chance,vampire. So join the group and help them on the quest.”
Regina trembled with fury as she and Vaughn held each other’s gazes. She seemed on the verge of losing it, and I feared what they might do to each other if things got physical. With a hiss of air through her clenched fangs, Regina dropped her gaze to the ground, yielding. She started to turn in our direction, but unexpectedly, she whirled, sharp claws going for Vaughn’s throat.
A warning rose to my lips, but it all happened so fast it never made it out of my mouth. Almost faster than the eye could see, Vaughn sidestepped, got a hold of Regina’s wrist, and twisted it behind her back. An instant later, there was a crack and a howl of pain from the vampire.
“Vaughn!” I exclaimed. “Stop.”
Regina fell to her knees as Vaughn released her arm. I stared at its twisted shape, cringing at the sight of the broken limb.
“Why would you do that?” I demanded. “You broke her arm.”
The irony of my outrage didn’t escape me. Ihadasked Bael to break her neck before, but that had been out of necessity. Vaughn had already subdued Regina. There had been no need to harm her.
“Stay away from her,” Vaughn ordered as I tried to approach the vampire to help her. “She will heal. It will only take a few minutes.”
“It’ll take longer than that because I haven’t fed properly,” Regina snarled, shooting daggers at Vaughn. “Wait ‘til I’ve regained my strength, you will pay for this.”
“Sure, sure. I look forward to it,” Vaughn said dismissively. “Now, the lot of you, get to work on finding that key. Daylight is burning.”
Chapter Ten
“So,who thinks they know where this key is?” Becca said, dropping on the wooden bench beside me.
Everyone in the group dipped their heads, shaking them slightly.
“Nothing? No one?” Becca asked. “Wonderful. Oh, well. We tried.” She crossed her feet at the ankles and stretched back, letting the sun redden her very pale skin, working on “getting a tan” as humans said.
“We cannot give up,” I said, leaning forward and meeting everyone’s eyes. “Something bad will happen if we don’t open this thing.”
“How do you know?” Regina leaned against the closest hut in its shade, away from the group as always. “Now, that you mention it, how do you always seem to know more than the rest of us? Are you psychic or something?”
Her piercing stare wasn’t the only one that darted my way after she posed this question. Bael seemed to like me more than Regina, but I’d caught him evaluating me with his pink eyes more than once. Apparently, I wasn’t playing my role very well, and the worst part was, I couldn’t lie.
“She’s just bossy,” Vaughn added, striding into the group. He’d been standing away from the group like Regina, apparently showing everyone he was here, but not really part of this. And yet, when it came to helping me keep my secret, he had to interject himself. “She always thinks she knows what’s going on, even if she doesn’t.”
Regina seemed to accept this. She didn’t like Vaughn, but she enjoyed knocking me down a peg more.
Ronnie was the first to speak after the lengthy silence. “Whatisgoing on here? This doesn’t seem like any rehabilitation camp I’ve ever heard of. And how are we supposed to find a key with no clues? It doesn’t make sense.”
“They wouldn’t give you an impossible task,” Vaughn added, beating me to it. “There has to be a way to figure it out.”
“Smashing didn’t work,” Bael said, sorrowfully. “Unless Tally took it up very high…” He seemed to have only one idea in his head.
I waved that thought away. “Dr. Watts said we should talk, get to know one another. There has to be something in that.”
“Whatever. Fine. If you insist, I’ll go first.” Becca sat up, looking pleased to talk about herself. “My name is Rebecca, but I hate that, so never call me that. I’m sixteen. I love cheerleading. I can do the splits.” She stood up from the bench, dropped to the ground, and stretched her legs in opposite directions until I was sure she might break something. Her leather skirt rode up to her hips. “Ta-da!” she threw her hands up. “Let’s see. What else?”
